Biography
Ivan Gornovsky was born 1886 in Selets, Russia (present-day Belarus). Worked as a laborer. Immigrated to the United States in 1913.
Brother of Vasil Gornovsky; active in the radical movement in Russia before emigrating to the United States in 1913. Left behind a wife and child in Russia.
He became a member of both the Union of Russian Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World and served as secretary of the Seattle branch of the URW. Arrested on October 16, 1919, on charges of criminal syndicalism and arrested again in January 1920. Deported to Russia on February 1, 1921.
Adapted from Kenyon Zimmer, Red Scare Deportees (kenyonzimmer.com), compiled from INS deportation case files.
The September 1920 One Big Union Monthly lists a detainee under the printed name "Ivan Hornofsky" among IWW members then held at Ellis Island, New York, awaiting deportation to Russia. The variant spelling and deportation context identify this as the same detainee. This supplies a contemporary Ellis Island custody location, without an exact admission date, completed deportation date or complete duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n09-sep-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=59
1920s custody-date review: The October 16, 1919 criminal arrest and January 1920 rearrest are separated. The original congressional hearing confirms an immigration proceeding and reproduces a March 8, 1920 statement; that statement date is not substituted for arrest or admission. The former uninterrupted 474-day imprisonment total was unsupported.
Sources: Kenyon Zimmer, Ivan Gornovsky biography, citing INS file 54860/407; House immigration hearings, Administration of Immigration Laws, page 50.